Hi everyone. I'm doing a research on Freddie's cliché. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I mean the I > V > vi with step-wise descending bass. In more exact words, it corresponds to any of the following progressions:

Now, what I'm trying to do is make a list of all Freddie's songs that use this progression at some point. So far I've got this ones, any contribution is welcome:

Bohemian Rhapsody Fairy Feller's Master Stroke Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy Friends Will Be Friends Innuendo We Are The Champions It's A Hard Life Life Is Real Keep Passing The Open Windows Lily Of The Valley Somebody To Love The March Of The Black Queen

Also I'd love to learn about the origin of this cliché and possible ways for Freddie to get to know it (so far I've got one suspect: Lennon's 'All You Need Is Love'). Songs that also use this cliché - not written by Freddie - are More Than Words, Save Me, Brighton Rock, Dust In The Wind and Dear Friends. Any contribution on that side is also welcome

The progression in question must be frequently used in classical music, and also in some pop songs prior to Beatles. Pachelbel's famous "Canon in D" is a close example, even though the bass there follows the root, the step-wise descending voice is also present there.

"Also I'd love to learn about the origin of this cliché and possible ways for Freddie to get to know it (so far I've got one suspect: Lennon's 'All You Need Is Love')"

How could you ever find out where this progression started. it might be possible to find out where it was first used in modern music (1950-now) But since there have been instruments i'm sure someone used this progression, so it's kind of useless to try and find it out.

Even more useless is finding out where Freddie heard this, he liked the Beatles, but that doesn't mean he heard it in All You Need for the first time, or that he used it often because it was in that song...right?

"On the first day Pim & Niek created a heavenly occupation. Pim & Niek blessed it and named it 'Loosch'."

Sorry, Sebastien, I think you're going to fail for once - that progression is so common (and so natural for any guitarist going from G to Em or C to Am), that you'll just get snowed under with examples.

Mind you, combine it with Brian's AKOM/WWRY/HTF guitar riff, and you could construct the "ultimate" Queen-a-like song. Question is, who would you get to sing it?

This isn't a freddie-cliche but a music-cliche. It's used everywhere and sounds nice, and is really good for chord-changes. It's like saying the chord D is a cliche, og playing in 4/4 time is a cliche. It sounds good, and is one of the basics of music.